It was going so well. I was actually sticking to the plan I was given, I got to day 18 and I was still giving it my best shot. I was actually enjoying it as I could see progress, I had reached two milestones in my journey.

Straight after doing a yoga session I could now actually touch my toes and I don’t even remember the last time I could do that. Now I know that’s not a biggie for a lot of people but for me it was, to be honest I found that fairly amazing.

The second milestone was the difference in my breathing – it was like night and day and I had only been on the plan for 18 days. It was like someone had stuck a hoover down my throat and sucked out all the cobwebs so the air that I breathed could actually get to where it was supposed to be going. I’m now breathing deeply again; I can now take a good few deep breaths making my chest expand and release the air slowly in a controlled way. Before if I had done that, and remember before is only 3 weeks ago, I would have had to take a few short breaths after deep breathing to catch up as it felt like I was starting to hyperventilate. The difference in my breathing in such a short space of time has been remarkable to say the least – and this was my primary goal when I started the plan.

So, what happened. Well last week I felt a few stings in my left shin, I thought nothing of it and thought it was growing into exercising again pains. I think I was right because the stings went away. And then this week I got some sensations in my right shin, it was different, I put it down to the same growing pains, but this time I wasn’t right. I looked at my leg and I saw my veins on my shin and around to my calf muscle – and they were blue, and I knew that wasn’t right.

So, I did some research and I discovered it’s not uncommon in people that are cyclists or who use spin bikes like I have been doing to get varicose veins. Well this is the first time I’ve ever heard about it, and before I got my bike I had done quite a bit of research. I wasn’t really impressed in myself for not knowing this, but I suppose you can’t know everything no matter how much you investigate it.

So, at the moment I can’t use the bike, but I can still do the yoga. Well thats what I thought I would be able to do as I thought the yoga is a lot less stressful on the body than the spin bike, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. The day after I first saw the veins, I did no bike, but I did do 12 minutes of yoga and lo and behold the veins were back just like I had done a session on the bike. I was surprised at this as I thought yoga was a passive exercise but according to my veins that’s not the case at all. I suppose that standing on one foot and twisting the body into some unusual shapes must stress the muscles and so they need more blood to repair. Now I type that out it makes a bit more sense to me. So, no more yoga.

My friend says that I should invert my leg for a few minutes twice a day to reduce the pressure and this seems to help matters. I do this by laying on my back and leaning my leg up the wall as straight up as I can. It seems a strange thing to have to do but hopefully it will help the situation.

So, I needed a bit of a cheer up and as it was my birthday this week I got a present, my present was a Fitbit Inspire HR and this cheered me up no end. This is because it’s the perfect present for me as it can track my heartbeat and record my exercise sessions and a lot of other things that I haven’t discovered yet. Its waterproof too so I can wear it in the shower which means apart from when I charge it I never have to take it off. Over the coming weeks I’ll share with you the data it gives of my progress, whatever that may be. I’m hoping it will be an interesting way to show the way my body changes as I do more exercise, providing that is that I’ll actually be able to exercise on the bike again soon.

The yoga was a great addition to my exercise plan, helping me be more flexible again but I’m disappointed that I can’t do the bike as thats what was working my lungs and my body. I hope that my veins get better, but I don’t know, I’ll just have to keep the fingers crossed. I feel I’ve made great strides in the short time I’ve been doing this and I don’t want to lose those gains and go back to how I was.